Eighth graders analyze Emily Dickinson's poem, I'm Nobody. After discussing it, they create their own bio poem. They draw and label mandalas and display them in class.

Third graders discuss the story "Roxaboxen." In this reading comprehension lesson, 3rd graders discover new vocabulary words, discuss the story using story mapping, and take a reading test. Students investigate safety in the desert and...

Students read the novel "Cecilia's Year". They answer questions to test for reading comprehension. They also relate the story to their own life.

Pupils read Nina Bonita by Ana Maria Machado. In this reading comprehension/ geography lesson, students recall various parts of the story and create a map of where the rabbit traveled throughout the story. They participate in group...

Persuade your writers that crafting arguments is not that difficult. They only need to follow the steps outlined in this resource.

How do your learners react in conflicts with authority figures? Help them begin Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club with an activity about different conflicts that kids can run into with their parents. Each scenario prompts learners to rank...

Everyone can be an expert! After finishing Wendelin Van Draanen's book Flipped, divide your class into small groups. Then, assign each group a topic to become experts on. The resource suggests topics such as characters, themes, setting,...

The definitions for unfamiliar words drawn from Art Spiegelman graphic novel memoir, Maus, provide the clues for a vocabulary bingo game. 

Compare and contrast the characters in John Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Using a Venn diagram, kids write in different traits to describe each person, and note their shared characteristics in the middle section.

Introduce your class to literary analysis with a series of activities that has them examine book and movie reviews. Groups then draft their own review of a text, select a digital medium, and craft a presentation.

Is Yuki a selfish character? Analyze her motivation and behavior during a unit on Shizuko's Daughter by Kyoko Mori. Readers fill out two sides of a graphic organizer with reasons why or why not she is selfish, and then come up with...

Young scholars work to develop comprehension strategies. Through modeling they discover how to summarize a written passage by deleting unnecessary information and using clustering or concept mapping for the most important items or...

How does background and experience influence one's point of view? Dwight Okita's famous poem about the Japanese internment is the text used to explore this essential question. Class members study primary documents to gain the necessary...

Focus on vocabulary, comprehension, and analysis while reading A Weave of Woods, a colorful picture book by Robert D. San Souci. Young learners use worksheets to preview, predict, practice paraphrasing, and make comparisons. The...

Upper grade and middle school writers study the art of parody. In this language arts instructional activity, learners study the work of Lewis Carroll, read and discuss parodies from the book, Alice in Wonderland, and construct their own...

Cement comprehension skills using the strategies in this activity. After reading the story, Juan Verdades by Joe Hays, learners use context clues to answer questions, identify main ideas and details, and sequence events.

A staggering amount of work went into compiling this vocabulary resource for Carson McCullers' The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. The overview provides a rationale for the strategy and information about tier 1, 2, and 3 words. The...

Read and discuss "The Yellow Wall-Paper" and the gender issues that the story brings up. Use articles from the time period to analyze, complete with specific discussion questions. After two days, scholars write an essay based on topics...

Connect to real-world experiences by having your primary learners create an award certificate based upon literal and inferential information from a story. They present the award to a character from a story and explain the criteria used....

How did the ancient people of Egypt preserve their dead so well that their bodies are still recognizable today? Learn the painstakingly complex process they used for preservation. Young scholars read and summarize a narrative detailing...

Everyone loves the tales involving King Arthur and his knights. After reading Knights of the Round Table by Gwen Gross, learners draw inferences and conclusions, analyze story elements, and discuss figurative language, including...

Discuss the environment of the Arctic tundra using this resource. The focus of this instructional activity is the story A Walk in the Tundra by Rebecca L. Johnson. The appealing illustrations are bound to captivate your class! After...

Discuss the life of Franklin D. Roosevelt. This story, called "Franklin D. Roosevelt" by Laura Hamilton Waxman, is used to explore comprehension skills. Some of these skills include identifying prefixes and suffixes, making comparisons,...

Learners sort out important information and create a visual framework for reviewing in the future. They organize a large quantity of information thus helping with learning and remembering details, cause and effect, comparison and...